Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) filed its official prehearing statement Wednesday in the DEA’s marijuana rescheduling proceeding — and simultaneously subpoenaed one of the DEA’s own scientists to testify at the hearing. The hearing opens Monday, June 29, in Arlington, Virginia. SAM is one of only seven designated parties with standing to participate. There will be no live streaming of the proceedings.
SAM’s prehearing statement lays out a preview of its arguments: marijuana does not meet the legal standard for rescheduling under the Controlled Substances Act. It has a high potential for abuse. It has no currently accepted medical use. And it lacks accepted safety for use under medical supervision. The statement goes further — arguing that the Department of Health and Human Services made a fundamentally flawed analysis when it recommended moving marijuana to Schedule III in 2023, relying on misleading comparisons to alcohol and opioids while ignoring marijuana’s mounting toll: psychosis, schizophrenia, youth addiction, cognitive impairment, and a Cannabis Use Disorder crisis that now affects 19.2 million Americans — up from 14.2 million just three years ago.
SAM will call two expert witnesses to make that case.
The first is Dr. Bertha K. Madras, Ph.D., a Harvard Medical School professor and former Deputy Director for Demand Reduction in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Dr. Madras is no stranger to this fight — the Department of Justice previously called her as its sole expert witness to defend marijuana’s Schedule I classification in federal court. She will testify that marijuana’s dependence liability rivals heroin in daily use patterns, that youth are developing Cannabis Use Disorder at twice the rate of adults, and that no major American medical organization has endorsed marijuana as medicine. Her testimony will directly challenge the scientific and legal basis for rescheduling.
The second witness is where things get interesting. SAM has subpoenaed Dr. Luli R. Akinfiresoye, a pharmacologist in the DEA’s own Drug and Chemical Evaluation Section — a designated government witness who was scheduled to testify at the prior rescheduling hearing in 2024. The DEA quietly dropped her from the government’s witness list for this upcoming hearing. SAM moved to compel her attendance anyway. Dr. Akinfiresoye is expected to testify that marijuana carries substantial abuse potential, well-documented dependence liability, and broad adverse health consequences affecting multiple organ systems and vulnerable populations — including adolescents and developing fetuses. Her own agency’s findings support keeping marijuana in Schedule I. The DEA chose not to put her on the stand. SAM will.
The question worth asking is: why would the DEA sideline its own expert whose conclusions run counter to rescheduling?
Science doesn’t get more convenient by hiding it. More than 61 million Americans used marijuana last year. Marijuana-related emergency department visits have surged. States that legalized it are watching overdose deaths, psychosis hospitalizations, and youth addiction rates climb in lockstep.
The hearing begins Monday. SAM will be there. And The Drug Report will have daily coverage throughout the week.